Synthesia Talk

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This new series of technique exercises is the logical continuation and expansion of the previous series of scales and arpeggios I created for Synthesia, taking into account new features that have been implemented into Synthesia since the old series was created.

However, things will start slowly. I will initially be working at duplicating the original set of scales while adding fingering data, and then things will get interesting!

There are a few differences from the old series of scales. These are:

- Scales are now chromatic instead of based on the circle of fifths. This was the original way I wanted to organise the scales, but having to write fingering information in a separate file necessitated that I group them into another logical (but still musical) order to reduce the amount of duplication.

- There are a lot more properties in the file names now, allowing for many different variations in future.

- There are no gaps in the MIDI files, and no bookmarks. The scales run back-to-back without stopping. (The reason for this is below.) You are free to create your own bookmarks if you need them, but these files will come without them.

My intention for these scales is that they will be more like drills than simple exercises. Indeed, once you memorise the fingerings and get proficient at switching from scale to scale quickly, you can blitz through a set of scales (even in their longest, 4-octave form) in seconds, or minutes at most. This makes them effective memory joggers, and even more effective warm-ups.

This is a project that will never be truly complete - it will be forever ongoing. There are literally hundreds of different scales out there, and with the variations I am planning to work on once the core set is done, there are potentially thousands of different permutations of scales that can be practiced. I will probably be working on this for the rest of my life! (Just kidding!) In reality, this series will not be able to cover every single variation that exists. What I do hope to do, though, is give you ideas as to how you can use your own creativity to invent new patterns and ways of practising scales. Remember, scales are only boring if you let them be boring! It's up to you to make it interesting for yourself!

This series will eventually show you why I do not advocate the use of Hanon. I realise it can be a sticking point for some people, but honestly, with the variations you can get out of scales as well as the music theory scales teach you as you do them, I find scales a lot more useful in the wider world of music. They also teach you more about how to move about on the piano than Hanon exercises, which generally stick to one fixed hand position per exercise. (Well, that's until you get to the scale section at the end of Hanon, but then again, why did he put it at the end? It should have been at the beginning! Scales are that important!)

So, without further ado, the first set up are the major scales! All further updates to the Piano Technique Series will be contained in this post as future edits, so be sure to check in here every once in a while.

I'm glad I can help all of you become better at playing the piano. I'm a teacher, so I couldn't resist!

Quick public service announcement: I'll be away for the next two weeks, so I won't be able to update until then - but the good news is that I'm taking my laptop with me and I will be able to use a digital piano while I am away, so I'll keep working and hopefully I'll be able to make another update soon after I return. Until then, I've just uploaded the melodic minor scales, so the three sets of scales I've done so far should be enough to keep you going until the next update.

Glad you're enjoying the scales and arpeggios! Apologies for the delay with the minor arpeggios. My sister is getting married tomorrow (after 18 months of planning), and I'm handling all the music for it, so I've been ridiculously busy for what seems like forever. Things will calm down for me over the summer and I should hopefully get the minor arpeggios out sometime in August. I have been slowly working on them, bit by bit, but I am looking forward to the time when I have a decent day or so of nothing going on, so that I can just sit down from morning until night and get some more of these exercises done!

My advice is to pick something that provides a clear roadmap of what to do and in what order and that you think will take you through at least six months and then stick with your choice for at least that long. Trying to jump around through multiple approaches to learning is likely to result in confusion and lack of progress.